Charles winther



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES WVINTHER, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO THE STAR BRASS MANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

STEAM-GAG E.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 407,983, dated July 30, 1889.

Application filed March 1, 1889.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, CHARLES WINTHER, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, a citizen of the United States,

have invented a new and useful Improvement in Steam-Gages, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in explaining its nature.

One of the things which presents the greatest difficulty in making a good steam-gage is the liability of corrosion which the parts present when made of the ordinary material.

For instance, it is customary to make the pinion and its arbor and the stafi on which the segment is mounted and the spring of steel and the frame and segment of brass or bronze. In the presence of heat and moisture these metals react upon each other and produce corrosion, particularly of the steel. It is almost unavoidable that there should be some moisture in the case of a steam-gage. The changes of temperature to which it is liable when-the steam is let down and the porosity of the tubes allow some moisture to pass, so that at the end of a greater or less period the brass becomes tarnished and the steel is rusted, and the gage by this means 0 becomes slow of action and less delicate and accurate in its indications. To substitute for steel any metal less tough and strong has not hitherto been considered practical, and for the springs, shafts, staffs, and pinions of gages 5 steel has been the only metal. Recently, however, several new alloys have been introduced that combine nearly the incorrosive qualities of the noble metals with the strength and stiffness of steel. One of these is the alloy known as nickeline silver. The composition of it is not accurately known; but it is a well-known article on the market. It takes a good strong temper, and has been used in the hair-springs of some watches to 5 render them less susceptible to magnetic and electric disturbances than are watches with steel hair-springs. Its high cost, however, forbids its employment for all the parts of a steam-gage movement. This invention relates to a method of employing in a steam- Serial No. 301,718. (No model.)

gage movement this alloy in such manner as to give to it the full effect of a complete movement made of noble metal, while at the same time the work shall not be much increased in cost.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a top plan of an ordinary steam-gage movement. Fig. 2 is a section thereof on the line 00 wof Fig. 1. It shows, however, the arbor, pinion, and segment in elevation. 'Fig. 3 is a diagram on an enlarged scale, &c., as in the text. 7

A is the base-plate of the movement-frame, which is intended to be fastened to the back of the gage. frame, and C C are the posts which unite the top and bottom plates. These parts may be made of any desirable material, such as bronze or brass, or the plates of bronze and the posts of steel. They are merely supports for the working parts of the movement.

D is the segment, which is formed with a hub E and has an extensible arm F, which serves as a means of adjustment of the segment to the strength of the spring. This arm is slotted, as shown, and is fastened to its place by the clamping-screw f, which passes through the slot and into a tail 6, formed on the hub.

I form the staff g, on which the segment is pivoted, the pinion I, its arbor J, which also is the arbor of the index-hand, and the spring K of the non-corrodible metal to which I have already referred, (nickeline silver) and thus procure a gage which does not deteriorate in the spring by corrosion, and in which the arbor and pinion are also incorrosive. This, however, would be insufficient if I employed these pivotal port-ions of the mechanism in bearings formed directly in the bronze of the plates, because, although. I should have lessened the general liability to corrosion, there would some liability remain from local galvanic action, the corrosion takingeffect, however, upon the plates A and B and not upon the journals of the staff and arbor. As, however, this metal (nickeline silver) is a good anti-friction metal when used against itself a property which is not universal among metals, anti-friction qualities being generally determined by the difference of nature of met- B is the top plate of this same i a1sI make the holes in the plates for the bearings larger than is necessary for their passage, and bush these holes, as shown in section in Fig. 2 at Z and in plan in Fig. 1 at the same letter, with little tubular bearings of the same alloy. These holes may be bored a little conical on both sides, as shown in an exa gerated form in Fig. 3, and the bushing is made very slightly longer than the hole and compressed a trifle, in order to expand it laterally. A convenient way of compressing is to form a sort of saw-tooth-shaped circular groove, the inner boundary of which is vertical and the outer edge inclined, as shown at M in said figure, although I do not confine myself to this method of upsetting the end. The employment of this method, however, will prevent the crowding of the metal toward the hole in the bushing, and so causing it to bind upon the bearing of the arbor or staff. In

lieu of this, however, it is obvious that the bushing may be formed of a solid block compressed in place and subsequently bored.

Any good antircorrosive, anti-friction metal of strong, stiif, tough texture used for the working parts, which metal shall be slightly electro-negative to the frame in which the are provided with 'stait and arbor bushings of 35 nickeline silver, substantially as described.

CHARLES WINTHER. Witnesses:

F. F. RAYMOND, 2d, J. M. DOLAN. 

